In Direct Support

Sendai lies in ruins, the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear plant is going down the drain, damage estimates past the 100 Billion Mark, 977 deaths so far, 170,000 evacuated, and I have never been more inspired by the United States Air Force. It all started after the 8.9 magnitude earthquake on Friday one of the most massive quakes to my knowledge. All we felt here was moderate shaking and well I thought that was it, most of us did, oh we were so wrong. The same day of the event our wheels started turning on a massive relief effort to help our host nation of Japan. Here I am on day +2 after the Sendai tsunami and we are generating airlift. They call it Operation: Tomodachi or friend in English, a more fitting moniker there could not be. Already help is arriving for the city of Sendai and affected areas, US Marines From across Japan, navy detachments from who knows where and more Air Force support at this base than I’ve ever seen in my short time here. Yet this is Day 2, the veritable tip of the iceberg, if past efforts of the Air Force are any indication we haven’t seen anything yet.

So far we’ve just been making sure that the planes can get up and go picking up essential material for the rebuilding to come and the shelters now, planes flying everywhere nonstop, supplying everything basically. In the days to come I expect to see massive coordination with the Japanese Military and civilian organizations, something on the scale of Katrina back in the states. I’m sorry but I must disagree with my brethren that are against what we’ve done so far to be perhaps overly hospitable to the units that we will likely play host to. We may not consider ourselves heroes by turning wrenches, splicing wires, and fueling planes. But for each plane we send up in the next couple of months, each plane I send up makes us all heroes to someone.

We may be in the initial stages of this as of yet we aren’t heroes to anyone on a large scale yet nor will we be soon, those of us in the maintenance group will likely never see ourselves as heroes if we look at the small limited scope of our own job and career field, we are one, we are one force working together to generate missions that will help Japan to rebuild, never have I dreamed that I would be in direct support of operations like this, nor did I want to be, who actually wants a massive disaster to happen at all? This is the time for humanity to show the best of itself to help our fellow man; our darkest hours will forge our brightest days. Maybe not on a grand scale, but those that care about it still think fondly on the Berlin airlift, and while we may not be dodging Soviet fighter jets, this is going to likely be one of the most massive Airlifts since then, it’s already getting massive watching something like this grow is absolutely inspiring to me as a junior Airman. I can only imagine how the decision makers are feeling now; stressed, worn out, yet hopefully like myself they’ve been inspired to persevere and to make an effort to help our hosts.

These are going to be some hard times, we’ve got to buckle down, do our jobs, get to work and never forget that Humanitarian relief is part of what we do, this is why we are here. When given a chance to shine, how you respond and what is in your heart when you do so will determine the effectiveness of what you do. It will determine the memorability of what everyone does, and will reflect on how the world views us all. Some people will be working because they want to get a Humanitarian Relief medal, others because they wish to be called a hero, not me. I will be out there fixing planes, changing parts, and making sure the mission goes. Not just because this is my day job, but because I feel that this is the right thing to do, there is no doubt in my mind of that fact, so I ask you out there…

How would you respond?

DISCLAIMER: The contents of this blog are not the Opinion of the United States Air force or the Department of Defense. The views expressed there in are solely those of the author.